Only a Girl Part 44

"Ernestine," said Johannes, "you are my guest, and I will not let you go. Forgive my mother's cold reception. It is not meant for you, but for the distorted character of you that she has heard. Remain, and convince her that you are not what she thinks, and you will be treated by her like a daughter."

"Oh, my only friend, I obey you, but I do it with a heavy heart. It would have been better for you to let me go to old Leonhardt for a couple of days."

"How could you have gone to old Leonhardt?" Johannes interrupted her impatiently. "It would have been visited upon him if he had received you. And it was equally impossible for you to pa.s.s this night alone in the castle without your uncle. You must be content to remain under my protection. Is that so hard?"

"Oh, no," said Ernestine, with a grateful look,--"but the others!"

"I am sorry that we arrived just in the midst of this crowd. Everything would have gone well if we had not encountered them just upon the stairs. I would have taken you to my study, where no one goes,--you could have rested there until these people were gone and my mother had prepared your room for you. But, since they have seen you, you must not hide yourself like a criminal. There are some here who already wish you well, and many others whose regard you will soon win."

"I am far more afraid of these people than of the angry peasants," said Ernestine sorrowfully. "I am so tired."

"Poor child!" said Johannes kindly. "I know you are, but do it for my sake. Will you not? I shall be so glad to have you by my side, and so proud to show them all that you accept me as your friend."

"Well, then, I will do as you say," said Ernestine submissively, and she ascended the stairs with Johannes.

At the door of the supper-room she laid aside her hat and shawl, and he looked admiringly at her lovely pale face, with the n.o.ble intellectual brow and the large melancholy eyes, and at her tall slender figure. Who that saw her could withstand her? He was so proud of her!

As they entered, the guests stood around the table, awaiting him. The impression that she produced was an extraordinary one. It was as if one of those pale ethereal female figures in Kaulbach's "Battle of the Huns" had stepped out of the frame. No one had ever seen before such ideal and melancholy beauty in real life. In an instant all were silent, and gazed earnestly at the rare spectacle.

"By Jove! she's a dangerous woman," whispered Moritz to the Staatsrathin.

"Indeed she is!" she replied, scarcely able to take her eyes away from her. "My poor Johannes!"

"You don't see such a woman every day!" growled old Heim with pride.

"Didn't I always say she would turn out a beauty?"

"The fact is, she is divine, and I shall love her dearly! Now say what you please," whispered Angelika. And, without waiting for a reply from either husband or mother, she flew across the room to Ernestine, who was standing overwhelmed with confusion, and cried, "Fraulein Ernestine, do you not remember me?"

Ernestine looked at her for a few seconds. "This must be little Angelika."

"Rightly guessed," said the young wife, and, standing on tiptoe, she pressed her rosy lips to Ernestine's delicate mouth.

Then Moritz approached, and said in his blunt, half-jesting way, "And I am the husband of this wife. My name is Kern, and I am besides, one of the monsters who had the courage to close the doors of our lecture-rooms in the face of a most beautiful woman."

Ernestine opened her eyes wide at this address, but, appreciating his humour, smiled gently.

"And indeed," he continued, "I do not repent in the least that I did so, now that I see you,--for not a student would ever have learned anything with such a comrade beside him."

Ernestine cast down her eyes, and, confused and ashamed, said not a word.

Moritz turned from her, and, with a paternal tap upon Johannes's shoulder, said to him, "Upon my word, you're not to blame for admiring her."

"Men are all alike," said the Staatsrathin in a whisper to Frau Professor Meibert. "My son-in-law, who never has a word to say to any woman but his wife, is already bewitched by her pretty face."

"Yes, and there is my husband making his way towards her," was the reply. "It must be admitted that she is quiet and modest."

"Still waters run deep!" said the Staatsrathin.

"Yes, that's true!" said the other with a nod.

"What do you think, Herr Professor," said Taun's wife to Herbert with an admiring glance at Ernestine, "of our having _tableaux vivants_ next winter? Would it not be beautiful to have her with Angelika for the two Leonoras?"

"Better try Hercules and Omphale. Let the Hartwich be Omphale, and set Professor Mollner at the spinning-wheel. That would make a charming picture!" remarked Herbert.

"I hear you do not like her," said Frau Taun, "but now that I see her I cannot believe all the terrible things that are told of her. And Mollner, too, is not the man to seat himself at the spinning-wheel, even though she were Omphale,--your characters do not fit."

Herbert shrugged his shoulders.

"Now, my dear friend," Mollner's clear voice was heard saying, "allow me to make you more intimately acquainted with your friends and foes.

Here is an old friend of yours, Professor Hilsborn. Do you not remember him?"

"We met once at a children's party," Hilsborn explained, "and you, with the rest of us, threw stones at a gla.s.s ball tossed up by a fountain.

You came off from the contest victorious, and were the object of envy and hostility in consequence."

Ernestine blushed. "Oh, yes, now I know. You were that gentle, amiable boy,--the adopted son of Dr. Heim; but--where--where is Dr. Heim?"

"Here he is," said the old gentleman, fixing his penetrating eyes upon her. Ernestine held out her hand, but she could not endure his glance, and her own sought the ground.

"Oh, Father Heim,--may I still call you so?"

"That's right," cried the old man. "Then you have not forgotten?" And he laid his hand kindly upon her head.

"How could I forget you, when you saved my life?"

"Aha," said Heim to her so softly that no one else could hear what he was saying, "don't be afraid child,--I shall stand up for you before all these people, but to you yourself I must say that my heart bleeds for you, and that if I did not hope that all the stupid stuff with which your little head is crammed would one day give place to something infinitely better, I should almost repent patching it up in days gone by. Don't be vexed, my child, you don't like to hear this from me,--perhaps you may be better pleased to hear it from some one else.

And now G.o.d bless your coming to this house!"

Ernestine made no reply, but his words produced a deep impression upon her. A tear trembled upon her eyelashes as she stood silently before him. Mollner then gave her his arm, and they all took their seats at table. Heim sat upon her right hand, and Taun and Hilsborn were opposite her. Then came Moritz with Angelika, and Herbert with Frau Taun, while the Staatsrathin sat upon Heim's right.

"Permit me to present my friend Professor Taun," said Mollner after they were seated.

"A friend!" added the latter to Mollner's words.

"He is one of those who voted in your favour," Mollner explained.

"I thank you," said Ernestine, "in the name of my s.e.x."

"I cannot appropriate all your thanks to myself. They are due first to my dear friends Heim and Hilsborn, for they fought for you more bravely than I, to whom you were personally a stranger."

"Really, Father Heim, did you vote for me?" asked Ernestine in surprise.

"Well, yes," grumbled Heim, vexed that Taun had told of it. "The thing that you sent in was not bad, and I would have liked to open a wider field for your restless spirit, where you might find something better to do,"--here he sunk his ba.s.s voice to a whisper,--"than abuse G.o.d Almighty as a dog bays the moon, and make all honest folk your enemies with your atheistical stuff."

Ernestine started with a sudden shock. Was this, then, urged against her? She was amazed. Were there really people in these enlightened circles who could be shocked at her skepticism? Had Leuthold spoken falsely when he a.s.sured her that true culture was synonymous with emanc.i.p.ation from all religious prejudices? And who were the cultivated cla.s.s, if these professors and their wives were not?

"Are you wounded by our friend's rough manner?" asked Taun, sorry for Ernestine's confusion. "You must know of old what a n.o.ble kernel is concealed within that rough sh.e.l.l."

"Who is talking about me?" Moritz cried out to them. "I am sure I heard 'n.o.ble Kern,' and that must be meant for me."